President Biden will speak to China’s Xi tomorrow and will reportedly make clear that the United States will not hesitate to impose costs (presumably sanctions) if China supports Russia's Invasion of Ukraine. This comes after reports of Russia asking for Chinese assistance.

— The Intel Hub (@The_IntelHub) March 18, 2022

Any ideas on what assistance the Russians are asking from the Chinese?

The Russians should have a ton of ammo, at least for their old systems.
Their Air Force, while somewhat ineffective, is not really suffering.
Can't really buy any ships.
Can't really use Chinese tanks

So what exactly are they asking from the Chinese? Drones? Body armor? Smart munitions?

deddog said:

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Any ideas on what assistance the Russians are asking from the Chinese?

The Russians should have a ton of ammo, at least for their old systems.
Their Air Force, while somewhat ineffective, is not really suffering.
Can't really buy any ships.
Can't really use Chinese tanks

So what exactly are they asking from the Chinese? Drones? Body armor? Smart munitions?

---

Good questions and I was thinking on it myself earlier. I'm guessing trucks and other transport would be near the top. Any and all small arms would likely be welcome. Even if Russia has enough. Saw somewhere where foodstuffs was mentioned? That would be interesting.

Honestly any of the more usual non combat supplies would be useful and may be asked for. Drones is another possibility like you say.

It may just be the underlying message under it rather than the actual items that Russia is shooting for here. Any accepted help gets China more on their side and disrupts the world balance just a smidge more.

deddog said:

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Any ideas on what assistance the Russians are asking from the Chinese?

The Russians should have a ton of ammo, at least for their old systems.
Their Air Force, while somewhat ineffective, is not really suffering.
Can't really buy any ships.
Can't really use Chinese tanks

So what exactly are they asking from the Chinese? Drones? Body armor? Smart munitions?

---

Based on earlier reporting drones, intel and commo gear, optics, vehicles (likely military transport and unarmored).

Foodstuff might make sense, though not sure if diet is similar.
It could be that Russia is diverting more resources meant for civilians to their army, so they need the Chinese assistance to prevent short term shortages e.g. for gasoline.

It could also be the media trying to shame Russia by making it look like they are asking China for help. I have no doubt they want / need China's backing politically. But I have a hard time wrapping my head around the Ruskies asking China for any kind of military assistance.

Saw post above. Some of that makes sense too.
Too bad the Russians don't have a Cabelas :-)

Smoke can be seen rising from the Direction of the International Airport in Lviv. pic.twitter.com/GpWLxBHn2u

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 18, 2022

*UPDATE FROM LVIV MAYOR*: Several missiles hit the aircraft repair plant. The buildings were destroyed. Work at the plant had stopped in advance so there are no casualities. Rescuers are working on the site" #ukraine

— Reeta Chakrabarti (@reetacbbc) March 18, 2022

Moment of the strikes on Lviv airport in western Ukraine, looks like 4 munitions strike the airport pic.twitter.com/a7HkUjpivE

— ELINT News (@ELINTNews) March 18, 2022

Video : Ukrainian SOF ambushing a Russian convoy.
The SOF reports that a Tigr armoured vehicle with a high ranking officer on it was hit by a NLAW in addition to BTR-82 APC that was blown off by a TM-62 anti-tank mine.#Russia #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/ryIWCpoB9n

— BlueSauron👁️ (@Blue_Sauron) March 18, 2022

GAC06 said:

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Eliminatus said:

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VaultingChemist said:

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"One Army commander in Europe told Task & Purpose that they have to get Pentagon approval before posting anything, including photos, on their unit’s official social media sites, something they don’t typically have to do."https://t.co/9WHUvsrqe9

— Dan Lamothe (@DanLamothe) March 17, 2022

Our European troops are being told to keep silent. Seems like a good idea.

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American military has not always been the brightest at social media postings. In this case in a very volatile situation, I have zero problem clamping down on it hard. There is nothing that some Joe in Poland can post that is going to help the situation and every chance of it hurting it.

Good move IMO. We all here see the information war being fought in real time in front of our very eyes.

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If **** gets real we need to take everyone's phone.

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Very true but it works the other way. You can run a great disinformation ops with this as well.

Putin was speaking in front of a stadium of 100k paid supporters at Moscow's giant Luzhniki Stadium, when the feed cut out and started playing a concert by Oleg Gazmanov...

Really, really weird.

Was his speech pre-recorded? pic.twitter.com/ED799Glsyo

— Jonny Tickle (@jonnytickle) March 18, 2022

⚡️General Staff: Russia almost exhausted its entire stockpile of missiles.

Russia’s military-industrial sector is working around the clock to replenish its stock, according to Ukraine’s General Staff.

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 18, 2022

We'll see how accurate this is.

Exhausted... abandoned... same thing I guess, they no longer have the missiles.

Any thoughts about this being russian misinformation to draw the Ukes into ambush situations?

Charpie said:

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GarryowenAg said:

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⚡️General Staff: Russia almost exhausted its entire stockpile of missiles.

Russia’s military-industrial sector is working around the clock to replenish its stock, according to Ukraine’s General Staff.

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 18, 2022

We'll see how accurate this is.

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Huge if true.

This is when you go in and hit them hard.

**** Russia

Viva Ukraine

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this report states last attack was from sub launched cruise missiles. To me that's not a weapon you release casually. Likely quite expensive and difficult to replenish.

Sounds like a job for our special operations waterborne mammals.......

https://londonlovesbusiness.com/russian-submarine-fires-six-cruise-missiles-near-to-polish-border-damaging-a-building/

....sounds like a message to Poland and the Baltics as much as an attack on Ukraine

More than 2500 corpses have been transported from Gomel region to Russia since the beginning of the war, tells a source to @svaboda.

To be clear, we are talking about just one direction (out of 3), actually about part of that direction, only those whom they were able to pick up

— Denis Kazakiewicz (@Den_2042) March 18, 2022

This is only one side of the advance towards Kyiv. They might be receiving both sides of that advance but it is likely an incomplete accounting for casualties there and that doesn't account for Russian dead in the Kharkiv attack, the attack from the separatist areas or the South.

If we look at Ukrainian estimates:

These are the indicative estimates of Russia’s losses as of March 18, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/aZ4LjspMjQ

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 18, 2022

Their figures (excluding aircraft those are ALWAYS inflated) might be pretty close to accurate. The Russian casualties could really be north of 50k all in (KIA/WIA/MIA/POW). I would seriously expect that if that is the case the Russians won't be able to make any serious advances for 2 more weeks. That is going to really really ramp up the pressure. The other major problem is that Russian verifiable material losses (outside MANPADS and ATGM) is almost 1500. The backlog to verify equipment losses is in the 100s. So likely the Russians are going to have a hard time either way.

4the_Record said:

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....sounds like a message to Poland and the Baltics as much as an attack on Ukraine

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There are times when "Don't press send" on a missile launch is appropriate, and this is one of those times. Poland could handle Russia on their own right now. Throw in the other Baltic states, and it would be a bloodbath. And they may well decide to go all the way to Moscow for Russia's attempt to play FAFO.

In the past week Russian forces have made marginal gains in Ukraine, namely towards Kryvyi Rih, some salients & widening supply lines,
Ukraine has had gains too.
During that week, @oryxspioenkop has recorded them losing 182 pieces of armour and 26 aircraft. This isn't sustainable pic.twitter.com/Qqg6ZKVncy

— Nathan Ruser (@Nrg8000) March 18, 2022

So this is through Belarus. That would suggest to me Ukraine figures are more likely correct than the Pentagon's numbers ( which always seemed likely anyway, they have better information ).

— George Barwood🇬🇧🇺🇦 (@GeorgeBarwood) March 18, 2022

HTownAg98 said:

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4the_Record said:

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....sounds like a message to Poland and the Baltics as much as an attack on Ukraine

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There are times when "Don't press send" on a middle launch is appropriate, and this is one of those times. Poland could handle Russia on their own right now. Throw in the other Baltic states, and it would be a bloodbath. And they may well decide to go all the way to Moscow for Russia's attempt to play FAFO.

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This is when Moscow considers tactical nukes. The whole reason they wanted buffer states and the warsaw pact was so they could limit a military advance through only the north half of Germany. If all the Baltic states rise up and attack Moscow, they'll take it.

That would really put Putin in a corner. Forces pressing in on Moscow, if Russia uses tactical nukes it will surely result in immediate escalation into Russia getting sent back to the stone age.